Is the light in Genesis and Revelation the same?

Question:

In Genesis 1:3 “God said, Let there be light …”, in verse 5 “And there was an evening and one morning … the first day.” Is this light the same as the light in Revelation 21:25; 22:5? If so, the light mentioned in Revelation is permanent, and in Genesis, somehow this light sets down in “verse 5” it is not sunlight but still sets and rises, how do you explain what was happening?

The light was created on the first day

The light mentioned in Genesis 1:3 is not the sunlight. This light was created by God on the first day:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light“; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night And there was evening and there was morning, one day. (Genesis 1:1-5)(NASB)

The Sun and the Moon were created on the fourth day

The Sun and the Moon are lights, but not the light that God created on the first day. The book of Genesis tells us further this:

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be forsigns and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. (Genesis 1:14-19)(NASB)

Jesus Christ will be the light of the New Jerusalem

We are told this at the end of chapter 21 of Revelation:

I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and theLamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is theLamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gateswill never be closed; (Revelation 21:22-25)(NASB)

God will illumine the people of New Jerusalem

This is written in the book of Revelation chapter 22:

And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:5)(NASB)

We can not say that Jesus is the light that was created on the first day of creation. That light is part of creation, while the Bible tells us about the Lord Jesus Christ that “all things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” The light from the first day of creation was made by Jesus Christ.

Translated by Felicia Rotaru